A Thousand Lessons
by newdog14
Summary: Lin Zhang is a fallen Xiaolin Warrior. And her master, Chase, has sent her on a mission to back stab our favorite monks. Things get complicated for her when she grows attached to them, especially Raimundo. Post season three, so beware of spoilers.
1. Introduction

**Fifteen Hundred Years Ago**

He'd beat me. He'd done it before and he'd do it again, with the difference being the outcome of this fight could save or destroy the world. Let me explain.

My name is Lin Zhang, and I am a Xiaolin Dragon…in training. I'm currently at the level of Wudai Warrior. However, I have a problem; my masters have…split up. You see a Heylin warrior by the name of Hannibal Roy Bean convinced one of my masters, Chase Young, to trade his soul for a potion that has turned him evil and now he has captured my other two masters, Grand Master Dashi and Master Monk Guan, leaving me and the other Xiaolin Dragons in training on our own. Well, not entirely on our own, we still have the temple dragon, Dojo, but he's not all that helpful. We had to do something, but no one knew what. So I did what I always did when I was confused about something, I studied. And in my studies, I learned that I could challenge Chase to a showdown and if I won Dashi and Monk Guan would go free…but if I lost, I'd join them in captivity, and since there was no way in hell I could beat Chase in a fight, he'd beaten me before and that was with the other monks by my side, I could never hope to do it alone. True, if I asked the other monks for help we might have a chance, but it'd be slim and I wasn't taking the risk of putting _all_ of us under Chase's control. No, I'd need to try a different approach, but what?

Then it hit me, a trade. Maybe if I gave him some Shen Gong Wu he'd let them go! But which ones should I give him? And would I even be allowed to? I had to try; after all losing a few Wu _had_ to be a better option than losing our masters.

XXXXXXXX

"Shen Gong Wu? I have no need for such trinkets," Chase sneered at me. I was standing in the throne room of Chase's citadel, which I have to admit was pretty amazing. Beautiful gardens and pretty fountains dotted the landscape of the entrance hall. The throne room was a bit darker, alcoves lined the walls, they appeared to be passages of some sort, though where they led was beyond me, and the room was lit entirely by torches which were placed slightly below Chase's throne, with made him look twice as scary. Next to the throne were Dashi and Monk Guan, both in chains. I looked in Chase's golden eyes, searching for any sign of the man I once knew, but all could see was evil. It seemed that my old master, as well as my friend, was gone.

"Though I admire your courage young one, you've decided to face me and at least attempt to fix things, which is more than your fellow monks have done," he continued, "So I'll tell you what, I'll let your masters go," I brightened, maybe he still had some good in him after all, "_If_," or not, "You swear your eternal loyalty to me."

Now I was confused. How could I be better than two of the greatest Xiaolin warriors of all time? My confusion must have shown on my face because he laughed.

"Confused? You shouldn't be. For the Dragons to pose any sort of threat they need a complete team, without you they will be severely limited in their actions," he said, "Of course, you don't stand much of a chance without your masters anyway, do you?"

"Don't do it Lin!" Shouted Guan, "Forget us, you shouldn't have to sacrifice yourself to save us."

I didn't know how to respond to that. Chase was right on both accounts, the team would be very limited without me, but with two amazing masters they would have a chance at overcoming those limits. And if I refused the Xiaolin ways would surely die off, and evil would rule the world with no opposition what so ever. But what Guan said….he clearly didn't want me to do it, but why? They were ten times more important than I was; they _had_ to train the other monks so that the ways of the Xiaolin could be taught to future generations.

"You swear you'll let them go?" I asked. Chase smiled.

"You have my word," He said. Now I know what you're thinking, as an evil villain Chase's word should mean nothing, but the thing about Chase was that he had an honor code. He always kept his promises and his word was always good. I think it has something to do with his past as a Xiaolin monk, but I have no way of knowing for sure.

I sighed, I couldn't see any better options, "Then I swear my eternal loyalty to you."

Chase snapped his fingers and the chains around Dashi and Guan broke, at the same time I got smaller.

"Wha-"I looked down at my hands, which had turned into…paws? I fell over and turning my head I found out why. I was now a black panther, which explained why I fell trying to stand on two legs. I looked back at Chase.

"Didn't I mention, all the warriors who fall to me are turned into jungle cats," he said. Then I looked around the lair and noticed something I hadn't before, the cats.

There wasn't too many of them, only 20 actually give or take a few. But there _was_ a rather large variety, tigers, lions, panthers, cheetahs, and all sorts of other jungle cats. They stayed hidden in the shadows of the alcoves, which is probably why I hadn't noticed before.

"Lin!" I turned to see Dashi and Monk Guan running towards me, "You'll pay for this Chase!" Guan shouted, "I challenge you-"I cut him off with a loud meow. He turned back to me and I tried to convey my best 'Go home! I didn't sacrifice myself so you could get re-captured!' look.

I guess he got the message, because he sighed, and though he didn't look happy about it, walked away.

"Thank-you Lin," Dashi said, "Your sacrifice will not be forgotten." Then he picked up the Wu I had dropped when I changed, and then followed Monk Guan out.

"Well Lin," Chase said, "Welcome to the Heylin side."


	2. Chapter 1

**Present**

"Whoa! We got a 9.5 Shen Gong Wu alert!" Dojo raced into the training room carrying the ancient scroll.

"Whatcha got Dojo?" Kimiko asked.

"The Culver Crystal. It creates a glittering sphere of light to distract one's enemies. It also makes a pretty neat flashlight," he said. The scroll showed a picture of a glowing amulet. It appeared to be a white crystal inside a clear globe.

"Then we must remove the lead and retrieve it!" Omi declared.

"You mean get the lead out!" Raimundo corrected.

"That too!" Omi said, and ran out the door.

XXXXXXX

"I have a job for you young one," Chase said. He snapped his fingers and Lin turned back into her human form.

She glared at him, but bowed none the less and said, "What is your bidding master?"

XXXXXXXX

"Dojo, are you sure this is where the Wu is?" Kimiko asked, "The town next to the temple doesn't seem like the best of hiding spots."

"Though I don't remember hiding any here, it's a trader town. Ordinary people find Wu all the time thinking they're just trinkets, seeing as this one is an amulet someone could be selling it," he answered.

"Look!" Raimundo pointed at vender's cart up the street.

XXXXXXX

"I won't do it!" she said, outraged at his plan.

"What happened to master?" he asked, Lin glared even harder.

"Even if I _did_ go along with your plan, they would recognize me," she said.

"How? They've never seen you."

"The dragon has. Master Monk Guan has."

"Master Monk Guan is at another temple, and the dragon is foolish, it will work."

"Except I still refuse!" she yelled.

Lin was trying his patience, which was never a good idea, but there was no way in hell she was going along with that plan.

XXXXXX

Kimiko sprinted over to cart, "Excuse me sir, how much for that necklace?"

The vendor looked at her and smiled, "You have a good eye, this is the amulet of luck, gives you good fortune, guaranteed!"

"Yes, but how much does it cost?" she asked again.

"I'll tell you what, you're a pretty girl and no one else has shown interest in it before, so I'll give it to you, free of charge!"

Kimiko smiled, "Thanks!" She grabbed the amulet and ran back to the others, "Piece of cake."

"Not so fast Xiaolin losers! That Wu is mine!"

"I think you spoke to soon Kimiko," Raimundo said.

XXXXXXXX

Chase turned into his dragon form and spoke slowly, "You swore your loyalty to me Lin, and you must obey me. I have been respectful of you wish not to fight the monks for fifteen hundred years, now do as I say!"

She stamped her foot in frustration, she didn't like it, but he had her. She had no choice.

"Fine, you win," Lin said, "I'll do it."

XXXXXXXX

"Jack-bots, attack!" Jack shouted, and hundreds of his cheap robots surged forward.

"You all know what to do," Raimundo said, smirking.

"Wudai Orion Formation!" they shouted together.

"Wudai Crater, Earth!" Clay shouted, smashing the bots with his now rock covered fists.

"Wudai Mars, Fire!" Kimiko shouted, and started shooting fireballs.

"Wudai Star, Wind!" Raimundo shouted, blasting the robots out of the air.

"Wudai Neptune, Water!" Omi shouted, short-circuiting the flying scrapheaps.

"Hey no fair!" Jack whined, "They aren't equipped for those kinds of moves!"

"Please! They aren't equipped for _any_ of our moves," Raimundo said.

Kimiko laughed as she set several of the crummy bots ablaze.

It only took a few minutes before the only thing left of the Jack-bots was scraps, some of which were smoking.

"Take that you no good varmint!" Clay shouted as Jack flew away whining.

"Can we go back to the temple now?" Dojo asked, "People are staring."


	3. Chapter 2

**A week later**

Raimundo was happy about being leader and all, it was a really cool job, but he didn't see why that meant _he_ had to be Master Fung's personal errand boy. And it wasn't even cool errands he was running, it was like 'we are out of soap, travel to the market and buy some more, or there will be ten thousand years of darkness.' Okay, so he didn't _actually_ say that last bit, but it was implied by his tone!

To make matters worse, no Shen Gong Wu had reveled themselves for a week. He and the others were about to die of boredom, if that was possible.

He kicked a stone as he walked back to the temple, soap in hand, muttering darkly the whole while. It was clear he was in a foul mood already, so needless to say his mood was _not_ improved when he rounded a corner and was knocked to the ground.

XXXXXXXX

Lin was getting sick of hanging around in the little town. She'd been there all morning and hadn't seen any sign of the monks. She could always just go knock on the temple door, but that seemed like it would be suspicious to her, so it was a last resort. Her plan was to bump into one of the monks at the market, if only she could find one!

But then it seemed fortune had decided to smile on her, for none other than Raimundo had just rounded the corner in front of her. She'd seen all the monks before thanks to their various visits to Chase's lair, but they'd never really paid her much attention and even if they had all they would have seen was a medium sized black panther. Either way, Raimundo was her chance to meet the monks, and she wasn't about to miss it.

She ran up to him, and was almost to him when she tripped. On her own foot too!

Ugh, trying to go back to two legs after fifteen hundred years of being on four was _really_ hard! But the fact that she tripped wasn't the worst part, the worst part was where she landed.

XXXXXXXX

Raimundo had shut his eyes when he hit the ground, but now he opened them and saw a pair of bright brown eyes, a mere inches from his own green ones.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" the girl, for it was clearly a girl speaking, said. She quickly rolled off of him and continued apologizing, but he wasn't really listening.

The girl was definitely Chinese, she could even be a local, she had long black hair that was held back in a ponytail with a red ribbon and she wore a faded red short sleeved dress with black trim, a split in the skirt, and black leggings. She was definitely athletic, but she wasn't extremely noticeable. In fact he probably wouldn't have noticed her at all if she hadn't run into him. This reminded him that she was still apologizing.

"Whoa, whoa slow down," he said, "it's fine, really. I'm Raimundo."

"Lin," she said, "It's nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too," he smiled at her, maybe being an errand boy wasn't so bad after all.

XXXXXXXXX

"What's taking Rai so long? He's been gone for hours," Kimiko said, frowning, "You don't think something happened to him do you?"

"I'd reckon a Shoku Warrior can take care of himself," Clay said, "I'm sure he's fine."

"Still, it shouldn't take this long to go buy soap," Kimiko countered, still frowning.

"If you want to know what was keeping him, I suggest you ask him yourself, here he comes now," Dojo said, gesturing to the road.

Raimundo was walking down it, but he wasn't alone.

"That sly dog," Clay said, smiling slightly.

Raimundo was walking with a girl, he was talking and she was laughing, but at their current distance they couldn't tell much else.

As the pair got closer though, they could see what she looked like, and she looked like an average Chinese girl.

"Welcome to the temple," Raimundo said to her, "This is Clay, Omi, Kimiko, and Dojo," he gestured to each of them, "Guys, I'd like you to meet Lin."

"Howdy ma'am," Clay said, tipping his hat to her, she nodded in turn.

"It pleases me greatly to make your acquaintance," Omi said, Lin wasn't sure how to interrupt what he'd just said, but then remembered Rai mentioning that the boy was incapable of using slang terms and decided to answer with a polite, "It's nice to meet you too."

Kimiko beamed at her, "It's great to have another girl at the temple! Are you going to be staying with us?" she inquired.

"If you'll have me," Lin said, "I was hoping I could join you all in training to be Xiaolin dragons. It seemed like a lot of fun from what Rai said."

"That'd be great!" Kimiko said, her smile growing.

"I suppose that means I have to go make up another room," Dojo said, slithering off to do just that. As he did so he wondered if he'd ever met Lin before, she seemed familiar enough but he couldn't quite place where he might have met her. He decided to put the thought out of his mind and go inform Master Fung of their new guest.

"It's about lunch time," Raimundo said, "You hungry?" He was speaking to Lin, but it was Omi who answered.

"I could most likely devour a large hooved mammal," he declared.

"You mean eat a horse," Raimundo corrected. Omi glared at him.

"Either way, I'd reckon we outta rustle up some grub," Clay said, "Considering we have a guest an all," He smiled and lent Lin his arm, "Ma'am?" Lin smiled.

"Why thank you," she said, taking his arm.

Raimundo glared daggers at Clay's back as he followed them to the kitchen.

XXXXXXXX

Lin was glad that the monks seemed to like her; it made her job much easier. She watched Omi and Raimundo squabbling at the table over some slang terms, and she had to fight not to laugh at their antics. Kimiko was talking about something called Goo Zombies 4, Lin had no idea what that was but it seemed like it should be common knowledge to her from the way Kimiko spoke, so she just nodded and used Kimiko's tone to gauge her reactions. Clay was scarfing down his food like he hadn't eaten in days, and Lin looked down at her own food; rice, egg rolls, and chicken dumplings.

As a cat she'd only really gotten scraps and leftovers, sometimes when Chase was feeling charitable he'd give them some steaks or something, but that always led to a brawl over the tasty meat. So she hadn't really had proper food since well, before she made the trade. The only problem with this was that she didn't remember how to use chopsticks.

She picked up the sticks and looked at the way the others held them, adjusting her grip accordingly. Then she speared one of the dumplings.


	4. Chapter 3

Chase used the eye-spy orb to see how Lin was doing. He was happy to see her eating lunch with the monks; it seemed his plan was progressing quite well.

XXXXXX

"Hey kids, we got Wu!" Dojo said, barging in with the scroll.

"What is it?" Kimiko asked.

"The Danger Sneakers," Dojo said, "They sense when danger is approaching and tell you the best way to avoid it, plus they're pretty stylish." The picture showed someone dodging an attack from an enemy.

"Cool," Raimundo said, "Let's go get 'em." They all stood up and started out. Lin, unsure of what to do, remained seated.

"Come on Lin," Kimiko said, "If you're gonna be a dragon you got to come with us to get Wu. Plus, it's really fun to kick Jack Spicer's butt, did Rai tell you about him?"

"Annoying evil boy genius who's obsessed with robots?" Kimiko nodded, smirking at Lin's description, "Yeah he might've mentioned him."

The two girls laughed and headed out.

XXXXXXXXX

Lin had never ridden a dragon before, nor did she particularly want to, so she was a little nervous to ride Dojo. Ok, more than a little, she was absolutely terrified of heights.

"Oh come on, you can trust me," Dojo said, "I've never dropped anyone in my life…except for that one time in Fiji."

Raimundo put hand on her shoulder, "I'm the dragon of the wind," he said, "and I promise I won't let you fall. You trust me right?"

"Yeah," she said, "I trust you," and with that she climbed on Dojo behind Raimundo.

Dojo took off, and Lin grabbed his waist and shut her eyes as the dragon shot into the air.

It didn't seem like they moving for a minute, and she slowly opened her eyes.

They were flying high, _really_ high. Lin shut her eyes again.

"Let me know when we get there," she said, she could feel Raimundo laughing.

XXXXXXX

"We're here, you can open your eyes," Raimundo said.

Lin opened her eyes and tried to jump off, but she ended up falling.

"You okay?" Kimiko asked, helping her up.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Lin answered, muttering something about lacking a tail.

"So where are the Danger Sneakers?" Kimiko asked. Lin finally looked at her surroundings. Dojo had landed in a small clearing surrounded by trees. There were a few birds singing, but other than that it seemed the monks were alone.

"They should be around here somewhere…" Dojo trailed off, searching the trees.

Lin looked around, but she couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"What's that over there," Kimiko said, pointing to the branches of a tree on the other side of the clearing. Hanging on a branch was a pair of red sneakers with black trim and an orange flame on the front.

"That would be _my_ new Shen Gong Wu," a shrill voice called out, Lin turned to see Jack Spicer and a hoard of Jack-bots. She knew Spicer quite well, he once trapped Chase in the Sphere of Yun and took control of the cats, he made them attack the monks, and he was extremely annoying. Hitting him would be quite enjoyable, "Jack-bots, attack!" he shouted, and the bots surged forward.

The others began to smash the bots, shouting the moves they were using and sending pieces of metal flying. Jack however began flying over to the Danger Sneakers, Lin sprinted after him and using a Jack-bot as a springboard launched herself into air, and kicked him in the face.

Jack flew into a tree, but it happened to be the tree the sneakers were dangling from, "Ha! Take that Xiaolin losers!" he said, reaching for the sneakers. Lucky for Lin, Raimundo had finished with his share of the Jack-bots, and was also reaching for the sneakers.

"Jack Spicer, I challenge you to a Xiaolin Showdown," he said.

Jack swore under his breath, he hated it when the monks beat him, "What's the game?"

Raimundo thought for a minute, "A race to the top of the canopy," he said, "My Mantis Flip Coin against your Monkey Staff."

"Let's go, Xiaolin showdown!" they shouted together.

The ground shook as the trees grew to three times their normal height; the Danger Sneakers hung from the highest branch.

"Gong Yi Tan Pai**!**" the boys said in unison.


End file.
